Still one of my favorite quotes from the character of Newton Crosby in Short Circuit circa 1985 or so.
And after tonight’s news, it reminds me of some of the reasons that business security cameras are so needed. In many situations, we need to be able to remove the personal perception of a situation completely, and get “just the facts”. Security cameras, like robots from the quote don’t get happy, they don’t get sad, and more importantly they don’t lie.
17 Year Old Faked the Police report about rape in Palos heights
This came especially to mind, since last month after hearing the horrifying news that a 17 year old girl in Palos Heights had allegedly been abducted while closing up her work and sexually assaulted for hours before showing up at her home, bare foot and disheveled. We followed the news intently, praying for a break in the case, and praying that the girl and her family would be able to recover from the horrible tragedy. We even posted a composite drawing of the alleged attacker from the news on the website, hoping that the criminal would be recognized and caught. All the while wishing that there had been security cameras in place at the facility, since the alleged attacker had supposedly come into the store and even ordered a sandwich…quality footage could have at least offered more clues and evidence to help lead to an arrest.
Well as of the news tonight, the truth has come out. A month later, when the police kept coming back to the fact that none of the evidence supported the 17 year old’s story, the lawyer for the family made a statement today that the whole story was fabricated by the young girl…costing taxpayers $200,000+ during the investigation to find this alleged criminal. No mention of why someone would fabricate such a tale or why the young girl would even get involved in the search, going as far as handing out fliers on the streets…
My heart still goes out to her and her family, and I hope that they get all the help that they need. But now, as a business owner, I also feel for the owner of the sandwich shop where she worked. Hopefully these allegations didn’t keep people from visiting the store, especially in an economy where people are eating out less.
But that brings me back to the quote. If you have ever been in an auto accident, or witnessed a traumatic event of any kind, then listened to the accounts of everyone else who was present, then you know that as human beings, we do get happy, we do get sad, we do get angry and most importantly we do assign feelings and interpretations to everything that we see. So anyone who has to take statements from everyone who witnessed the event can get confused as to whether all of the people were actually viewing the same event, because every account will be entirely different.
Security cameras on the other hand just report the facts…that is one of the reasons that security camera footage is so valuable for police investigations. No hidden meanings or interpretations are ever assigned, just the actual video of what actually happened. That leads to more concrete evidence, and quicker investigations. How much more quickly could the police have debunked this false police report if they had been able to quickly review the video footage from the store just before and during closing time?
